This invention relates to an adhesive tape assembly including a backing having a pressure sensitive adhesive coating covering its top and bottom surfaces and a release liner covering and extending beyond at least one edge of one of the adhesive-coated surfaces.
Double-coated adhesive tape constructions are commonly used for attaching together various objects, e.g. floor tile or carpeting to a floor. These double-coated tape constructions generally require a release liner over one of the adhesive-coated surfaces to facilitate winding the lengths of the tape construction into rolls and to facilitate dispensing and applying the uncovered adhesive surface of sections or smaller lengths of these tape rolls to various objects. After affixing one of the adhesive surfaces to an object, the release liner can be removed to expose the other adhesive surface, and allow a second object to be attached thereon. To facilitate the removal of this release liner, the tape constructions often employ the technique of extending the release liner beyond one or both edges of the adhesive-coated backing. This extended edge provides a free or unattached tab which can be grasped in order to peel away the liner from the adhesive-coated backing. It is often difficult, however, to detect which edge of the tape construction has this extended liner. This is especially true where the tape construction is being utilized in square sections, and where the extended liner could be on any one of the four edges of the section. In this situation, the user is required to randomly pick at the various edges of the tape construction until the extended liner is found. This random picking is not only time consuming, but in certain applications can actually delaminate the tape and degrade, if not destroy the desired adhesion.
A technique for locating this extended liner is not as simplistic as one might assume, e.g. simply printing identification markings on the exposed side of the liner is not an effective solution. This is because the technique or construction utilized must be amenable to conventional manufacturing technology, which must, for example, afford the possibility to change tape widths during the manufacturing process. This is not the case with a preprinted liner where the markings indicating edge lines necessarily are at pre-defined intervals. In fact, any printing on the liner is difficult because of coatings on the liner which diminish its permeability so as to provide its release characteristics for the adhesive coatings, and which also diminish any printing capabilities.